The present invention relates to the field of vehicle devices, and, more particularly, to a tracking and alerting system for a vehicle.
Motor vehicles, such as passenger cars, trucks, busses, fleet vehicles, etc. are widely used and knowing the locations of such vehicles is often desired. For example, should a vehicle be stolen, it would be beneficial to know the vehicle""s location so that authorities could be promptly and accurately directed to retrieve the vehicle. Indeed, the tracking system could plot the getaway path of the thief.
For a company with hired drivers, it may be desirable to know the driver""s whereabouts during the course of the day. Similarly, a rental car agency or other fleet operator, for example, may wish to know the whereabouts of its fleet of vehicles.
It may also be desirable to track the location of a vehicle as it is used throughout the course of a normal day. For parents of younger or older drivers, for example, knowledge of the vehicle""s location may provide some assurance that the driver is at designated locations and following a prescribed route.
A number of patents disclose various systems and approaches to tracking vehicles. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,223,844 discloses a tracking system including a control center and a mobile unit installed in the vehicle. The mobile unit may send security warnings to the command center via a wireless transceiver. For example, the security warning may be based upon an alarm signal provided by an alarm system, or based upon the output of a battery disconnect detector which determines when the vehicle battery voltage is below a given threshold. Position information for the vehicle is determined using a GPS receiver at the vehicle.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,515,043 discloses a similar system which may send one or more preprogrammed telephone messages to a user when away from the vehicle. The user may remotely access location information or cause certain commands to be carried out by entering a personal identification number (PIN).
The widespread availability and use of the Internet has prompted a number of vehicle tracking systems to also make use of the Internet. For example, TelEvoke, Inc. proposed such a system in combination with Clifford Electronics. The system was to provide notification, control and tracking services via the telephone or the Internet. Users could be notified via phone, e-mail, or pager of events such as a car alarm being triggered. Users could control the vehicle remote devices via phone, web, or PDA such as unlocking car doors. Additionally, users could track TelEvoke-enabled vehicles on the Internet or via the telephone. An Internet map could be viewed by the user showing the actual and prior vehicle locations. TelEvoke offered its services via a centralized fully automated Network Operations Center. To reduce the communications costs, it was proposed to use the control channel of the cellular telephone network.
Many conventional vehicle tracking units include many input and output connections. Accordingly, such units may be difficult to install in a vehicle. This is especially so since the space available to access and connect to vehicle wires is likely to be restricted. Accordingly, errors in the initial installation may occur. Accurate diagnosis of any such errors may be time consuming and add further to the installation costs. Maintenance of an installed system may also be complicated if each connection must be individually checked and rechecked.
In view of the foregoing background, it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle tracking unit which provides theft alert notifications and related methods.
This and other objects, features, and advantages in accordance with the present invention are provided by a vehicle tracking unit for a vehicle of a type including a vehicle alarm indicator. The vehicle tracking unit may include a vehicle position determining device, a wireless communications device, and a controller cooperating with the wireless communications device and the vehicle position determining device for sending vehicle position information to a monitoring station. Furthermore, the controller may also monitor the vehicle alarm indicator to determine triggering thereof, monitor at least one power supply for a change therein, and send at least one alert to the monitoring station in cooperation with the wireless communications device based upon both triggering of the vehicle alarm indicator and a change in the at least one power supply.
More particularly, the at least one power supply may be a back-up battery for the vehicle tracking unit as well as a vehicle battery. Additionally, the at least one alert may include a first alert based upon the alarm indicator being triggered, and a second alert based upon the voltage of the at least one power supply being below a threshold. By way of example, the threshold may be less than about 4 volts.
The controller may monitor the vehicle alarm indicator to determine at least one of triggering continuously for greater than a predetermined time and triggering in a repetitive pattern before sending the at least one alert. In addition, the vehicle alarm indicator may be at least one of a vehicle horn and a vehicle siren. Also, the vehicle position determining device may be a Global Positioning System (GPS) device, and the wireless communications device may be a cellular telephone communications device, for example.
Accordingly, the vehicle tracking unit of the present invention will advantageously send the second alert even if the first alert is not sent. For example, if the controller is set to briefly delay sending the first alert by the predetermined time based upon triggering of the alarm indicator, such as to allow a user time to deactivate an errantly generated alarm condition, a would-be thief could potentially cut the battery cable quickly enough to prevent the first alert from being sent. Yet, by so doing, the second alert will be sent, and the user will still be notified of the attempted theft of the vehicle.
A method aspect of the invention is for using a vehicle tracking unit, such as that briefly described above, for a vehicle of a type comprising a vehicle battery and a vehicle alarm indicator. The method may include monitoring the vehicle alarm indicator to determine triggering thereof using the vehicle tracking unit, monitoring a voltage of the vehicle battery relative to a threshold using the vehicle tracking unit, and sending at least one alert from the vehicle tracking unit to the monitoring station based upon both triggering of the vehicle alarm indicator and the voltage of the vehicle battery being below the threshold.